Killer Insect Virus Helping to Decimate World's Bee Population

- Common Dreams staff Published on Friday, June 8, 2012 by Common Dreams

A new study published in the journal Science
has revealed that, in addition to the destruction of natural habitats
and the widespread use of industrial chemical pesticides, the global bee
die-off witnessed in recent years is also caused by a deadly virus
carried by bloodsucking parasitic mites.

Varroa destructor is a bloodsucking parasite that feeds on honeybees
and has spread globally, destroying colonies worldwide. (Photograph:
Alamy) The report in Science is available to subscribers only, but according to The Guardian's Damian Carrington, the researchers who conducted the study warn that the virus, called Varroa destructor and carried by the varroa
mite, is now one of the "most widely distributed and contagious insect
viruses on the planet." Equally troubling, the new dominance of the
killer virus poses an ongoing threat to colonies even after beekeepers
have eradicated the mites from hives.

The research team, led by Stephen Martin of
Britain's University of Sheffield studied the impact of Varroa in
Hawaii, which the mites have only recently invaded.

"This data provides clear evidence that, of all the suggested
mechanisms of honey bee loss, virus infection brought in by mite
infestation is a major player in the decline," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Bee populations have been falling rapidly in many countries, fuelled
by a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder. Its cause is unclear
but the Varroa mite is a prime suspect, since it spreads viruses while
feeding on hemolymph, or bee's "blood".
To clarify the link between mites and viruses, a team led by Stephen
Martin of Britain's University of Sheffield studied the impact of Varroa
in Hawaii, which the mites have only recently invaded.
They found the arrival of Varroa increased the prevalence of a single
type of virus, deformed wing virus (DWV), in honey bees from around 10
percent to 100 percent.
At the same time the amount of DWV virus in the bees' bodies rocketed
by a millionfold and there was a huge reduction in virus diversity,
with a single strain of DWV crowding out others.
"It is that strain that is now dominant around the world and seems to
be killing bees," Martin said in a telephone interview. "My money would
be on this virus as being key."

Martin noted that the weakening of colonies
through lack of food or the presence of damaging pesticides would make
them more vulnerable to infestation.

The varroa mite's role means the virus is now one of the "most widely
distributed and contagious insect viruses on the planet", the
researchers warned. Furthermore, the new dominance of the killer virus
poses an ongoing threat to colonies even after beekeepers have
eradicated the mites from hives.Varroa destructor has spread from Asia across the entire
world over the past 50 years. It arrived in the UK in 1990 and has been
implicated in the halving of bee numbers since then, alongside other
factors including the destruction of flowery habitats in which bees feed and the widespread use of pesticides on crops.
Bees and other pollinators are vital in the production in up to a third
of all the food we eat, but the role the mites played was unclear, as
bacteria and fungi are also found in colonies along with the viruses.
But the mite's arrival in Hawaii in 2007 gave scientists a unique
opportunity to track its deadly spread. "We were able to watch the
emergence of the disease for the first time ever," said Stephen Martin,
at the University of Sheffield, who led the new research published in the journal Science.
Within a year of varroa arrival, 274 of 419 colonies on Oahu island
(65%) were wiped out, with the mites going on to wreak destruction
across Big Island the following year.
A particular virus, called deformed wing virus (DWV), was present in
low and apparently harmless levels in colonies before the mites arrived,
the scientists found. Even when the mites first invaded hives, the
virus levels remained low. "But the following year the virus levels had
gone through the roof." said Martin. "It was a millionfold increase – it
was staggering."
The other key finding was that one DWV strain had gone from making up
10% of the virus population to making up 100%. "The viral landscape had
changed and to one that happened to be deadly to bees," Martin said,
noting the DWV strain was the same one found around the world. "There is
a very strong correlation between where you get this DWV strain and
where you get huge amounts of colony losses. We are almost certain this
study seals the link between the two." [...]
Martin noted that the weakening of colonies through lack of food or
the presence of damaging pesticides would make them more vulnerable to
infestation.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Launching a lawsuit against the very company that is responsible for a farmer suicide every 30 minutes, 5 million farmers are now suing Monsanto for as much as 6.2 billion euros (around 7.7 billion US dollars). The reason? As with many other cases, such as the ones that led certain farming regions to be known as the ‘suicide belt’,
Monsanto has been reportedly taxing the farmers to financial shambles
with ridiculous royalty charges. The farmers state that Monsanto has
been unfairly gathering exorbitant profits each year on a global scale
from “renewal” seed harvests, which are crops planted using seed from
the previous year’s harvest.

The practice of using renewal seeds dates back to ancient times, but
Monsanto seeks to collect massive royalties and put an end to the
practice. Why? Because Monsanto owns the very patent to the genetically
modified seed, and is charging the farmers not only for the original
crops, but the later harvests as well. Eventually, the
royalties compound and many farmers begin to struggle with even keeping
their farm afloat. It is for this reason that India slammed Monsanto
with groundbreaking ‘biopiracy’ charges in an effort to stop Monsanto from ‘patenting life’.

Jane Berwanger, a lawyer for the farmers who went on record regarding the case, told the Associted Press:

“Monsanto gets paid when it sell the seeds. The law gives
producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the
world is there a requirement to pay (again). Producers are in effect
paying a private tax on production.”

The findings echo what thousands of farmers have experienced in
particularly poor nations, where many of the farmers are unable to stand
up to Monsanto. Back in 2008, the Daily Mail covered what is known as the ‘GM Genocide’, which is responsible for taking the lives of over 17,683 Indian farmers in 2009 alone.
After finding that their harvests were failing and they started to
enter economic turmoil, the farmers began ending their own lives —
oftentimes drinking the very same insecticide that Monsanto provided
them with.

As the information continues to surface on Monsanto’s crimes, further lawsuits will begin to take effect. After it was ousted in January that Monsanto was running illegal ‘slave-like’
working rings, more individuals became aware of just how seriously
Monsanto seems to disregard their workers — so why would they care for
the health of their consumers? In April, another group of farmers sued Monsanto for ‘knowingly poisoning’ workers and causing ‘devastating birth defects’.

Will endless lawsuits from millions of seriously affected individuals be the end of Monsanto?

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

'Transglutaminase' and Other Fun New Foods

Forget organic, locavore, omega3, umami, artisanal and all the
other signposts of the healthy, ethical and refined "good food"
movement, there are important advances in CuisineWorld that are going
180 degrees in the opposite direction — advances that literally are reshaping what we eat (while also reshaping us).A beef and chicken log. What can't you do with transglutaminase?

Let's start
with red meat. Perhaps you're one who enjoys a steak dinner now and
again. If so, let me ask this question: Do you prefer it with a nice
Bernaise sauce, a side of garlicky spinach — or maybe some
transglutaminase?

Trans-what-did-he-say?

Transglutaminase is an enzyme made by the fermentation of bacteria
and added to meat pieces to make them stick together. Yes, "meat glue" —
it's what's for dinner!

This is yet another dandy product from industrialized food purveyors that keep inventing
new ways to mess with our dinner for their own fun and profit. Right
about now, you're probably asking yourself, "Why do they need to glue
meat together?"

Glad you asked. It's so the industry can take cheap chunks of beef and form them into what appears to be a pricey steak.

For example, that filet mignon you ordered at the Slaphappy
Steakhouse chain recently — was it steak ... or transglutaminase? By
liberally dusting meat pieces with transglutaminase powder, squishing
them into filet mignon-shaped molds, adding a bit of pressure to bond
the pieces and chilling them — voila, four-bucks-a-pound stew meat looks
like a $25-a-pound filet mignon!

While glued-together, steak-like meat is
surprisingly common in the food service industry, the corporations
peddling it are not eager to let us consumers in on their little secret.

While glued-together, steak-like meat is surprisingly common in the food service industry, the corporations peddling it are not eager to let us consumers in on their little secret.

Well, sniffs the meat industry's lobbying group, it's not like the
companies are deceiving eaters — those that use the process have to list
transglutaminase on the ingredient label and stamp the package as
"formed" or "reformed" meat. How honest! Except that most of these
molded "filet mignon" are sold through high-volume chain restaurants, hotels, cafeterias and banquet halls — where unwitting customers never see the package or ingredient label.

This is why we should support truth-in-menu laws. Make them say
"reformed and glued" filet mignon right on the menu. That simple step
lets us decide if we really want to eat the stuff. Consumers should have
the right to know ... and choose.A pizza with a hot dog crust. Delish.

Next on the menu: extra fat! While many cafes, bistros and even
diners these days have moved to such healthy edibles as locally sourced
beets and jicama on sustainably raised arugula dressed with small-batch
artisan balsamic vinegar, Pizza Hut is proudly going for the hardy
eater, shouting, "Let's get stuffed."

The chain has enhanced its belt-busting pepperoni and gooey cheese
pizza by (get this) stuffing a long, looping hot dog right into the
crust! But, if that's not caloric enough for you, Pizza Hut has also
designed a pizza that is ringed by a dozen mini cheeseburgers baked
directly onto the crust.

Hey, some might see obesity as a crisis, but YUM! Brands Inc., the
conglomerate that owns Pizza Hut, sees it as a moneymaking opportunity.
Don't fight it, feed it!

Not to be outdone, the Burger King chain is test-marketing a stunning
advance in fusion cuisine at one of its Nashville outlets. It marries
two essential food groups together: ice cream and pork. Yes, America,
get ready for the Bacon Sundae! Topped off with caramel and chocolate
syrup.

The pioneering innovator in obesity grub, however, comes from the
city where anything goes and "too much" is never enough: Las Vegas. Many
top chefs have opened four-star restaurants along the Las Vegas strip,
but none can outstrip a local diner when it comes to extravagant excess.
Unabashedly named the "Heart Attack Grill," this place takes pride in
deep-fried, and its menu is filled with unhealthy eats. Renown for its
Quadruple Bypass Burger, Butter Fat Shakes and Flatliner Fries cooked in
pure lard, the grill brags that it serves food with "Taste Worth Dying
For."

Indeed, two diners have collapsed so far this year while pounding
down Bypass Burgers. To add to the charm, the grill offers a special
deal for truly hefty eaters: If you weigh over 350 pounds, you can eat
for free. So weigh in, tuck in — and bon appetite.

National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow,
Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on
behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families,
environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.

Experts Tell Congress: Support Healthy Food System, Not Big Ag

Seventy
leading chefs, authors, food policy experts, nutritionists, CEOs, and
environment and health organizations sent an open letter to Members of
Congress today urging lawmakers to reinvest federal farm and crop
insurance subsidy dollars into programs that feed the hungry, protect the environment and promote the consumption of local, organic and healthy food. Seventy leading chefs, authors, food policy experts, nutritionists, CEOs, and environment and health organizations have sent an open letter to Members of Congress urging lawmakers to reinvest federal farm and crop insurance subsidy dollars into programs that feed the hungry, protect the environment and promote the consumption of local, organic and healthy food.

The letter comes just days ahead of an expected Senate vote on the 2012 Farm Bill and was initiated by the Environmental Working Group's
Kari Hamerschlag and authors Anna Lappé and Dan Imhoff. All the
signatories expressed frustration with the draft of the bill that came
out of the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this year. It says the
committee’s proposal is “seriously out of step with the nation’s
priorities and what the American public expects and wants from our food
and farm policy.”

"Investing in healthy food, healthy diets and critical nutrition
programs for millions of struggling families across the country should
be the priority as Congress writes the next farm bill," said Marion
Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition at
New York University. "Not more subsidies that send billions of scarce federal funds to the bank accounts of Big Food producers."

"We need a farm bill that supports farmers,
rural communities, and those who are hungry, not a bill that gives
unlimited subsidies to the biggest commodity producers while at the same
time cutting programs for the neediest among us." --Anne Lappé

"We need a farm bill that supports farmers, rural communities, and
those who are hungry, not a bill that gives unlimited subsidies to the
biggest commodity producers while at the same time cutting programs for
the neediest among us," said Lappé, author of Diet for a Hot Planet and cofounder of the Small Planet Institute. "We stand with the millions of Americans who share this common sense perspective."

The full letter follows:

Dear Member of Congress,

With the 2008 farm bill due to expire in a matter of months, the
Senate Agriculture Committee approved legislation in April to steer the
next five years of national food and agriculture policy. We applaud the
positive steps that the proposed bill takes under Senator Debbie
Stabenow’s leadership, including incentives for fruit and vegetable
purchases, scaling up local production and distribution of healthy foods
and bolstering marketing and research support for fruit, nut and
vegetable farmers.

Unfortunately, the Senate bill falls far short of the reforms
needed to come to grips with the nation’s critical food and farming
challenges. It is also seriously out of step with the nation’s
priorities and what the American public expects and wants from our food
and farm policy. In a national poll last year, 78 percent said making
nutritious and healthy foods more affordable and accessible should be a
top priority in the farm bill. Members of the U.S. Council of Mayors and
the National League of Cities have both echoed this sentiment in recent
statements calling for a healthy food and farm bill.

Although the committee proposal includes important reforms to the
commodity title, we are deeply concerned that it would continue to give
away subsidies worth tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to the
largest commodity crop growers, insurance companies, and agribusinesses
even as it drastically underfunds programs to promote the health and
food security of all Americans, invest
in beginning and disadvantaged farmers, revitalize local food economies
and protect natural resources. We strongly object to any cuts in food
assistance during such dire times for so many Americans. These critical
shortcomings must be addressed when the bill goes to the Senate floor.

As written, the bill would spend billions to guarantee income for
the most profitable farm businesses in the country. This would come
primarily in the form of unlimited crop insurance premium subsidies to
industrial-scale growers who can well afford to pay more of their risk
management costs. Crop insurance programs must be reformed to work
better for diversified and organic farmers and to ensure comprehensive
payment caps or income eligibility requirements. Otherwise, this so
called “safety net” becomes an extravagant entitlement for affluent
landowners and insurance companies.

In addition, the proposed $9 billion-a-year crop insurance
program comes with minimal societal obligations. Growers collecting
hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premium subsidies should
at least be required to take simple measures to protect wetlands,
grassland and soil. Instead, the unlimited subsidies will encourage
growers to plow up fragile areas and intensify fencerow-to-fencerow
cultivation of environmentally sensitive land, erasing decades of
conservation gains.

Most of the benefits from these programs would flow to the
producers of five big commodity crops (corn, soy, cotton, rice and
wheat). Meanwhile, millions of consumers lack access to affordable
fruits and vegetables, with the result that the diets of fewer than five
percent of adults meet the USDA’s daily nutrition guidelines. Partly as
a result, one in three young people is expected to develop diabetes and
the diet-related health care costs of diabetes, cancer, coronary heart
disease and stroke are rising precipitously, reaching an estimated $70
billion a year.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The Government Accountability
Office has identified modest reforms to crop insurance subsidies that
could save as much as $2 billion a year. Half could come from payment
limits that affect just four percent of the growers in the program.
Congress should use these savings to provide full funding for
conservation and nutrition assistance programs and strengthen
initiatives that support local and healthy food, organic agriculture and
beginning and disadvantaged farmers. These investments could save
billions in the long run by protecting valuable water and soil
resources, creating jobs and supporting foods necessary for a healthy
and balanced diet.

When it is your turn to vote, we urge you to stand up for local
and healthy food and nutrition programs and to support equitable and
fiscally responsible amendments that will protect and enhance public
health and the environment while maintaining a reasonable safety net for
the farmers who grow our food. More than ever before, the public
demands this. Come November, they will be giving their votes to members
of Congress who supported a healthy food and farm bill that puts the
interests of taxpayers, citizens and the vast majority of America’s
farmers first and foremost.

Our nation was built on the principles of protecting our greatest
legacy: the land on which we grow our food and feed our families. Stand
with us to protect not only farmers, without whom we would all go
hungry, but to enact a food and farm bill that fairly and judiciously
serves the interests of all Americans.

Sincerely,

Leigh Adcock

Executive Director, Women, Food and Agriculture Network

Will Allen

Farmer, Founder, CEO of Growing Power

Dan Barber

Executive Chef and Co-owner Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Neal D. Barnard, MD

President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Sung e Bai

Director of National Programs, Slow Food USA

Mario Batali

Chef, Author, Entrepreneur

Fedele Bauccio

CEO, Bon Appetit Management Company

Jo Ann Baumgartner

Wild Farm Alliance

Rick Bayless

Chef, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo

David Beckmann

President, Bread for the World

Andy Bellatti

Andy Bellatti, MS, RD, Andy Bellatti Nutrition

Wendell Berry

Lane's Landing Farm

Haven Bourque

Founder, HavenBMedia

Tom Colicchio

Craft Restaurants

Christopher Cook

Author of Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis